Reverend Hall has been labelled the Mad Minister by the media and it certainly seems that he has lost the plot!

He was revealed as the hospital attacker at the end of last year and the season opens with the Rev holding Rachel hostage. “Amy and I did some amazing stuff. The scenes we did together were quite phenomenal. They made for some of the most satisfying times I’ve had as an actor.” Paul Tassone told TV Week.

This was an interesting role for Paul but not one that he immediately jumped at.

“When my agent got the call from Home and Away I was on a meditation retreat, and I said ‘I’ll deal with it when I get back’” he told us.

“I have to admit I struggled with it until I spoke to the producer Cameron Welsh” continued Paul. “I worked with Cameron before on All Saints when he was a director and we chatted about the character and it was perfect. When I was told who the character was and where he was going, it was just perfect, and it’s been a joy working here, it’s a great team and so relaxed. It’s wonderful”.

We asked Paul how he got into acting.

“I started at high school doing plays in Perth then I went to Murdoch University and did a degree in theatre and drama.” He smiled

Did you always know you wanted to be an actor?

“No ..no I wanted to do many things, I wanted to be a marine biologist, at one point I wanted to join the army, purely so that I could retire in 20 years and get a pension, but then I fell into doing plays. There was a girl I liked at high school doing a play and I thought..oh I can do that, as a lot of us do” he laughs..

He’s not quite sure how it happened but suddenly he was an actor doing plays in Perth and England and then studying at the Strasborg Institute. When he returned to Australia, Paul was offered roles on the TV Series Sweat, Water Rats and then as Nelson on All Saints for four and a half years.

Although his love for theatre remains strong, Paul wanted to do films. “It was always films that inspired me to become an actor.” He reflected. “I have a film that I finished last year called Men’s Group with Grant Dodwell, Don Reid, Paul Gleeson, Steve Rodgers, Steve Le Marquand and William Zappa about 6 very different men. They discover they all have something in common, being male! They are sending that off to Cannes and Sundance, so hopefully something will happen with that.” For more information go to The Mens group website.

So will Rachel survive the attack? “It’s going to get a lot worse for her before it gets better” was all Cameron would say.

We can reveal that there are some very powerful scenes coming up and we do find out the motivation behind his behaviour. It's gripping viewing, so stay tuned.